EV Battery Maker A123 to Focus on Micro-Hybrids

A123 Systems LLC, which opened North America’s biggest electric car battery factory in 2010, is retargeting its lithium-ion technology toward the fast-growing micro-hybrid market. The MIT-spinoff will especially focus on 12V and 48V lithium-ion packs for cars incorporating so-called “start-stop” technology, which enables a vehicle to stop and restart at traffic lights and stop signs.

“We’re certainly not pulling away from our existing business in electric vehicles,” A123 spokesman Jeff Kessen told Design News. “We’re just recognizing going forward that the best growth opportunities are in the low-voltage space.”

The “low-voltage” space would be a departure for A123, which had previously specialized in supplying batteries to pure electric cars, plug-in hybrids, and conventional hybrids that use electrical architectures of 300V to 600V. Those vehicles also tend to employ big battery packs incorporating hundreds of cells. In contrast, 12V start-stop architectures employ a battery size similar to that of today’s conventional gasoline-burning cars.

Start-stop technology is expected to see massive growth over the next five years. Lux Research predicts that micro-hybrid sales in Europe will reach almost 12 million a year in 2018. The numbers will be slightly lower in the US, but annual sales are still expected to jump from 300,000 vehicles a year in 2014 to 5 million by 2018. "In the US, we don’t think there is a realistic way to get to 54.5 mpg by 2025 without having mild hybrids and micro-hybrids in a large percentage of the vehicle fleets," Cosmin Laslau, an industry analyst for Lux Research, told Design News.

Start-stop technology could help automakers because it boosts a vehicle’s fuel efficiency by about 5 percent to 10 percent. By combining it with regenerative braking, the fuel efficiency savings can jump to about 15 percent.

A123 believes that its lithium-ion chemistry is well-suited to micro-hybrid technology. The key is the battery’s ability to handle both start-stop and regenerative braking, which is more difficult for lead-acid chemistries to do. Today, however, most start-stop vehicles use lead-acid batteries. “We’re finding that once the vehicle manufacturers get start-stop under their belts, they realize they can’t do much regenerative braking because that’s the Achilles heel of lead-acid,” Kessen told us.

Competitors such as Johnson Controls (JCI) are developing lithium-ion batteries for 48V architectures as a means of handling both start-stop and regenerative braking. Lithium-ion is considered a better candidate for regenerative braking because it has greater charge capability than lead-acid.

For A123, the move to micro-hybrids is part of a larger new business strategy. The company, which notably received $249 million from the Department of Energy to build battery facilities in the US, filed for bankruptcy in 2012. It has since been restructured and acquired by China’s Wanxiang Group.

A123’s shift toward micro-hybrids should offer shorter-term growth possibilities, which is why the strategy is sweeping across much of the automotive supplier community, analysts say. “Everyone around the same time started figuring out that full EVs aren’t that appealing anymore,” Laslau told us. “So they decided to shift to micro-hybrids.”

As A123 refocuses in that direction, however, the competition will grow intense, Laslau said. “They have experience with lithium-ion batteries, but mostly in EVs, plug-ins, and large hybrids,” he told us. “Going into the micro-hybrid space, they’ll have to prove themselves.”

Nice article, Chuck. Interesting that for short-term growth, it's the micro-hybrid market. I wouldn't be surprised if that works for long-term growth as well. It's also interesting to hear the comment that CAFE standards won't be met without hybrids.

Interesting discussion here and thrilled to know awareness about Micro-Hybrids..We have developed our own Micr-Hybrid device that can be installed in any car as an off the shelf product..We have tested our system on 7-8 year old cars so as to know impact on old batteries & starter motors and result are just astonishing..we have got 15-20% fuel saving in those cars without hampering any of the existing components..presently we are only offeting auto stop/start and regenerative breaking woulb be introduced later as it requires Li batteris as mentioned in the article.

we are very small gourp of youngsters and don't have huge budget for marketing & promotions so looking for suitable tie-ups worldwide..kindly get in touch to discuss our proposal in detail..

Start/stop is just a short term thing, 5-8 yrs at most, but a market is a market. And unless battery compnies find some markets, they are doomed.

I'd not use a 12vdc battery here with the 48vdc one as just more cost, complication especially since you need a DC to DC anyway to keep the 12v battery charged!!

The most important thing is these/lithium batteries can be left not fully charged, in fact they like it, unlike lead acid which needs charging till full or it dies.

But if one were to plug their SS battery in at night a couple times./wk, lead would do this for much less.

Another is for the same price, putting the starter, alternator in the flywheel saves so much weight, cost, parts plus can be used to boost power I can't figure out why they don't do it that way for another 5% economy boost for less money.

Yep... A123 gets more than a quarter of a BILLION Government dollars, but just can't make it work. No problem - the Chinese swoop in and buy the whole shebang - AND at fire sale prices. Smart move, Zenmasters! China links A123 to their abundant and highly controlled access to the prime raw material - Chinese controlled Lithium. A nice economy of piracy, IMO. Score US 0 / China 1

Meanwhile, in a tacit admission that current EV designs are market failures, A123 debuts their "new line of batteries" tipping their hat to the start/stop designs, which might actually make a modicum of engineering sense. This announcement conveniently happens even as GM announces they are going strongly towards micro-hybrids! Hmmm... GM + A123 + microhybrids. That's an even less than tacit admission that the EV scam is a failure as a business model, no matter what its tree hugging merits might be. If GM is ready to write off the volt, you can figure that micro-hybrids are going to carry the next half decade.

The next move? Well, for one, expect more climate change hysteria as the juggernaut of "oops..we found more oil" announcements both in the US and Australia impeach the main candidate for pure EV ascendancy. That will make it even more incumbent upon EV acolytes to fall back to their secondary strategy of climate change hysteria, e.g. "sure we have lots of oil, but we can't USE it anymore!"

Some cars are more reliable than others, but even the vehicles at the bottom of this year’s Consumer Reports reliability survey are vastly better than those of 20 years ago in the key areas of powertrain and hardware, experts said this week.

As it does every year, Consumers Union recently surveyed its members on the reliability of their vehicles. This year, it collected data on approximately 1.1 million cars and trucks, categorizing the members’ likes and dislikes, not only of their vehicles, but of the vehicle sub-systems, as well.

A few weeks ago, Ford Motor Co. quietly announced that it was rolling out a new wrinkle to the powerful safety feature called stability control, adding even more lifesaving potential to a technology that has already been very successful.

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